Tim Hunt

Car 49  Tim Hunt/Pat Barber TR4A

Arriving at the start we noticed a distinct smell of burnt rubber. My immediate though was "This is pants", which proved remarkably prescient. On operning the bonnet (hood, Pat) I soon spotted an errant pair of Calvin Kleins having made intimate contact with the lower part of the car's exhaust manifold. In case you are wondering I waste nothing and when the waist bands eventualy go I demote old pants as excellent cleaning/polishing cloths for the garage. I must have left them on the engine somewhere and not spotted them when I did my final check. It took the first hundred miles or so finally to lose the burning rubber smell.

As for actual snagging I am pleased to report that Dave Langrick's page 57 of the road book remains blank. Once again I completed an RBRR without opening my tool kit. We had only two slight issues, an intermittent cutting out on the approach to Otterburn, quickly diagnosed as a loose LT lead on the coil and a slight coolant leak from the rad core spotted at the Ashburton stop, promptly sorted by the addition of Bar's Leaks and substitition of a lower pressure (4psi) rad cap courtesy of Alex Chandler, Car 34. Roll on 2014 and, DV, my 20th RBRR start in the same car.

Tim Hunt

I am scratching my head over this one, hopefully someone has the answer. As part of my minimal RBRR preparation I finally got around to fitting a relay for my fog lamps. I fitted the relay in the engine compartment near the battery. I connected terminal 30 on the relay direct to the battery positive incorporating an in-line 15A fuse. Terminal 87 was connected to the fog lights, both of which I earthed to the body.  These connections were made with heavy duty 44/030 cable. I used an illuminated switch for the fogs with three terminals. The terminal marked ACC I connected to terminal 86 on the relay and I connected the one marked Supply/Power to the side light circuit. The third terminal on the switch was earthed, as was terminal 85 of the relay. I checked my work and the fogs worked fine when the side lights were on. I took the car out this evening to set up the aim of the fog lights and I was amazed to note that when I switched on the fog lights my ammeter needle moved quite slowly to register a CHARGE of somewhere between 5 and 10 amps. How on earth can this be? I wouldn't expect any reading on the ammeter, since by wiring the relay direct from the battery the ammeter is by-passed, and certainly not a CHARGE!! Someone please explain, I am baffled!

Tim Hunt